Just days after sweeping the Phillies in decisive fashion, breaking Jimmy Rollins‘ 38 game hitting streak in the process, the Cards found themselves on the other end of a sweep, losing to the Cubs 5-1 on Friday, 3-2 on Saturday and 8-4 last night. The story of this series was pitching. Friday afternoon at Wrigley, the cards couldn’t sustain a rally against the aging (or ageless?) Greg Maddux, managing only four hits and a seventh-inning solo homer by Jim Edmonds against the right-hander, who celebrates his 40th birthday on Friday.
The weekend games featured blown opportunities by the cardinals bullpen. After Chris Carpenter pitched excellently for six innings, giving up only 4 hits and striking out 9, Josh Hancock dished up a game-tying two-run homer to pinch hitter Michael Barrett in the seventh, and Brad Thompson allowed the game-winning homer to Derrek Lee in the eighth. Yesterday, Sidney Ponson pitched adequately for five innings, only to see a 4-3 Cardinals lead turn into an 8-4 loss when Ricardo Rincon and Jason Isringhausen couldn’t hold the lead in the eighth, including three walks between them and Barrett’s grand slam off Isringhausen.
The Cards look to put this weekend of missed opportunities behind them at today’s opener of the new Busch Stadium against the Milwaukee Brewers, winners of five of their first six games. This will be the Brewers’ first road game following a six-game season opening homestand. Mark Mulder (0-0, 3.86) pitches for the Cards against the Brewers’ Tomo Ohka (0-0, 1.29). Ohka had a 8.10 ERA in two appearances at the old Busch.
